Time to take a stand

Stop the Presses column by Chris Graham

I think I’ve been too hard on Staunton officials who have dared to suggest that they will take any means necessary to prevent a porn store from setting up shop in town.

I mean, I’m all for the First Amendment, but I don’t know that I have to be so much for it that I endorse porn.

Really, I’m not sure that the founding fathers were thinking of Jugs when they were mulling over the freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

You know?

And honestly, it’s not like those who want to do whatever it is that they want to do with porn have to go to some store on Springhill Road to get it.

Hell, it’s already in your house – if you have the Internet or digital cable.

And why would you want to leave the privacy of your home to go buy or rent a DVD or pick up the latest copy of Big Butts when you could access high-quality porn with a click of the computer mouse or the push of a couple of buttons on the TV remote?

Of course, this makes the stand against a porn shop being able to do business in Staunton all that more quixotic.

Seriously, we’re not outright banning porn in Staunton here or anything.

People can still get it at any of a number of local convenience stores, even if they don’t get it at home on their TV or their computer.

Same as they can indulge their other vices here in town – whether their vice be beer or liquor or cigarettes or state-sanctioned gambling.

It seems to me that if we follow through with this fight against a porn store, we have several other ones on our hands with everything else that’s bad for you.

But that’s just me.

Maybe this is the stand that we need to take.

Maybe we need to say no to “Big Honkin’ Cans” in Staunton.

Maybe there is a line, and this is it – and we need to put our collective foot down.

Or maybe we just need to relax and realize that this, too, will run its course.

I give the store six months – if it ever does open up, that is.

Chris Graham is the author of Stop the Presses: A Collection of Columns. More information on the book is available at www.authorchrisgraham.com.